By Marcus Ikechukwu
Barely few days after its suspension of its eight months strike, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is set to summon an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC).
The decision to convene the meeting follows alleged payment of the lecturers half salaries for the month of October, 2022 by the Federal Government.
Though no date has been fixed yet, sources said that the decision to convene a meeting followed the drama which erupted when members of the union received half salaries in their accounts.
A source who confirmed the latest development said, “I was shocked when I received an alert from my bank and I noticed that I got half salary; they didn’t even talk about the backlog of the eight months of the strike.
Another source said, “It is true, I received half, In fact, some professors received salaries of N121,000; this is the fact, we are waiting for the decision of the national body, our members are very angry right now.”
In an interview in Abuja, ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed the development.
“Half salaries were paid, no reasons were given whatsoever. We learnt that Ngige wrote the office of the Accountant General and Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system and told them to only pay us for the period when we called off the strike.
“We heard there was a letter to that effect but we haven’t gotten it yet. We are going to summon a meeting.”
In a response to the development, the Director of Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, was reported to have said, “We don’t pay salary at the Ministry of Education. Kindly direct your question to the office of the Accountant General.”
